A recent post by my friend, Amy Burns, at her blog prompted me to address the future of Web 2.0 music applications for music education. I hope you’ll read Amy’s post! Those who know me and my teaching know that I’ve begun to incorporate Web 2.0 – or “online,” web-based – applications in my teaching. I do this for a variety of reasons:
1. They’re free.
2. They’re everywhere kids can get online.
3. They’re generally easy/intuitive to use, hiding the complicated part of music technology.
4. They tend to foster creative expression, an area of special interest I’ve been emphasizing in my music teaching.
5. They foster collaboration.
6. When you want to work in groups, it’s generally easier to get in a general-purpose computer lab than a specialized “music tech” lab.
7. You don’t have to worry about loading programs or storing files with Web 2.0 apps – this is all done for you “in the cloud” (out on the Internet on the servers for the various sites/apps).
Obviously this list isn’t exclusive. Can you think of other good reasons?
We’re planning on using Web 2.0 apps like Noteflight and iNudge in our Elementary Band/Strings camp later this summer. We have about 110 4th/5th graders signed up, but 26 of them will be in a “Composition” elective in a computer lab. I know the kids will enjoy the fun, creative activities and – what’s more – they’ll be able to “take them home” to share with parents (as long as they can get online from home) and/or send links for these projects to friends/relatives. In some cases, depending on the web app and the student’s age, they can even embed their projects in web pages, wikis, facebook, Twitter, etc.
I used Noteflight with a 6-8 grade composers club camp at Penn State a few weeks ago too, and – again – the kids loved the way it worked. It may not seem that way, but I’m very careful about “jumping on the band wagon” for new/latest technologies UNLESS I sense they’ll be worth the investment of time (i.e. remember those workshops on using PDA’s in music class?), but I think Web 2.0 music apps have a bright future for all music educators.
Finally, if interested, click here for a list of my favorite Web 2.0 music apps (and a few other cool traditional ones to download).
